Ref: PR1944
ate: 02/10/08

Flower power descended on the city this week as the winners of this year's Wakefield in Bloom Awards were announced.

Wakefield County Hall played host to the ceremony yesterday (Wednesday) where the Mayor of Wakefield Cllr Jacqui Williams presented awards to winners.

Cllr David Dagger, Wakefield Council's cabinet member for regeneration, culture and sport, said: "It was a terrific event and it was nice to see a great number of people being represented - people with private gardens, schools and those from the business community - all coming together.

"There were no losers as everyone who entered this competition were simply brilliant. Some of the standards set suggest they could easily do well at Yorkshire in Bloom."

The winners were:

• Best Business in Bloom in the City Centre: George-a-Green Fisheries, Lupset.
• Best Business in Bloom in a Large Town: The Bridge Inn, Castleford
• Best Business in Bloom in a Small Town: The Mews Hotel,Ossett
• Best Business in Bloom in a Village: The Fox and Hounds, Thorpe Audlin
• The Best Resident's Garden in Bloom: Mr & Mrs Chambers, Pontefract
• The Best Primary School in Bloom: Horbury Primary School
• The Best Secondary School in Bloom: The Cathedral School
• Best Community Group in Bloom: Hemsworth & District Community Initiatives

There were also two special awards for significant support of Wakefield in Bloom.

• Red Kite (public house and restaurant) who have hosted the visiting Yorkshire in Bloom judges on several occasions
• Wakefield Girls' High School: who have hosted and presented to visiting Yorkshire in Bloom judges in support of Wakefield in Bloom

Unfortunately, representatives from George-a-Green Fisheries were unable to make the awards ceremony, so Cllr Dagger called in at their shop to present them with their award today (Thursday).

The shop had created a beautiful floral display despite having their work vandalised earlier in the year. Following the incident, the local community rallied round to help them re-create their floral displays by donating plants.

Cllr David Dagger added: "This is wonderful news for everyone at the fisheries. They have had to deal with mindless vandalism recently, so to bounce back and be celebrating winning this award is just fantastic to see.

"They received a lot of support from the local community as people brought them lots of flowers and it's wonderful to see such great community spirit."